A Rainbow Of Choices

If a room is your interior design canvas, carpet is your paint brush. It can be neutral, complementing the other visual elements in the room. Or, it can be a bold, focal point of the room, making a statement. Because carpet comes in nearly every color imaginable, the choice is yours.

The ever-popular beige carpet can make a room look spacious. For a bolder statement, you might match your carpet to a common color in your furniture and draperies. Environmental colors, like blues, deep greens, rosy quartz and stony neutrals are becoming increasingly popular. Warm colors can turn up the heat in a room that lacks light, while cool greens and blues have a calming effect. Lighter colors make the room seem larger; darker colors provide coziness.

There are also practical considerations in color selection. New stain and soil-resistant technology makes today's lighter color carpet much easier to clean, allowing for more decorating options. Medium and darker colors, tweeds and textures are good at hiding soil in your home's high-traffic areas.

One final consideration: the color of your carpet will look different under different lighting conditions. So make sure to take your samples home and look at them by daylight and by lamplight.